Real poker is coming to the state of Florida.

[left52side]

Party on Left's boat! I'm over on the east coast of Florida, just north of Ft. Lauderdale. Tampa's not too far

Poker party in the gulf.
I like the sound of that mortis.

 

[Mortis]

Poker party in the gulf.
I like the sound of that mortis.

Just tell me when, I'd be down for that, hehe.

 

[white_lytning]

Another update.

Today the compact that the Seminole tribe signed on Friday was signed by the Governor. It is now passed on to the legislator. They will meet in a special session in October in which 1 of 3 things will happen.

1. The compact will be signed. Class III gaming will come to 7 Seminole locations in the state of Florida. This means high stakes (vegas style) poker.

2. The compact will not signed and instead the legislator will agree on different legislation and allow all parimutuels in the state to have class III gaming. This means high stakes (vegas style) poker.

3. The compact will get rejected and the legislator will not agree on different legislation this October.


What today means is pretty much.......more waiting. But hopefully within 90 days we will be able to buy into a 5/10 game with more than 10 bbs.

 

[CAMurray]

This is the first Ive heard of this. I take the Fam to Disney every year for the good of the many. I wouldn't mind to see the day there were Ring games going outside at the base of Epcot.

arty:

 

[Vex444]

Wish they open one here in Orlando. Im tired of going to Tampa to play live it 1 1/2 drive.

 

[white_lytning]

Update and Summary

Okay, let's review.

Federal law gives the right to any Indian tribe to run any Class II gaming which is offered anywhere within the state without a compact. This includes bingo (and therefore bingo slots) and poker (at whatever limits are available to others by state law), among other games.

Federal law gives the right to any Indian tribe to run any Class III gaming which is offered anywhere within the state, but it has to be done by compact with the state and the state has to negotiate a compact in good faith. Class III gaming includes banked card games, other casino games, pari-mutuel wagering and lotteries, among others.

As Florida has pari-mutuel wagering and a lottery, the Seminole tribe has been trying to get the State of Florida to negotiate a compact for some Class III gaming for sixteen years. The state has shot down every attempt by the Seminoles in one way or another, including getting a Federal court ruling that the tribe doesn't have the right to sue the state in court to make a compact with them.

A few years ago, by local referendum, the pari-mutuels in Miami-Dade and Broward counties were granted lawful permission to install Class III slot machines, and proceeded to do so. This gave the right to the Seminole tribe to do the same, but once again not without a compact, which the state legislature refused to negotiate. The tribe made numerous appeals to the Federal government to intervene on their behalf.

Finally, the Secretary of the Interior gave the state a deadline, after which he would issue administrative procedures to give the Seminole tribe some or all Class III gaming (he didn't say which) without a compact and therefore without any revenue sharing with the state. The Florida legislature still refused to negotiate a compact, so at the last minute Crist stepped in and negotiated a compact so that the state would receive revenue sharing on the Class III gaming. This gave the tribe Class III slots (which the tribe was entitled to without any revenue sharing), plus on banked card games with exclusivity in exchange for revenue sharing on all tribal gaming revenues (Class II and Class III).

This compact was signed by the tribe and the governor, accepted by the Secretary of the Interior, and published into federal law in the Federal Register. But, the Speaker of the Florida House and the Florida House or Representatives made a court challenge in the Florida Supreme Court and got the compact voided, according to that court. It has yet to be determined if this would hold up in Federal court as well, so this original compact may or may not still be valid under Federal law - and probably is until the matter is settled in the U.S. Supreme Court. Note also that Crist did make valid arguments for the lawfulness of his actions in negotiating and signing that compact without the approval of the state legislature.

After the original compact was struck down by the state SC, the Florida Attorney General attempted to get the feds, who are the only ones with the authority to enforce laws on tribal lands, to come in and shut down the Class III gaming which the Seminoles had begun to operate based on the original compact. The feds refused to do so a few times, instead asking the tribe to legally justify continuing under the old compact, and in the meantime the tribe asked SCOTUS to rule on the case. But these legal actions were put on hold when the feds pressured the Florida legislature to negotiate a new compact and the legislature began that process this past spring.

Now we come to all the latest mess under SB788. This new compact did not give the tribe true exclusivity on the banked card games, which is pretty much de riguer for a tribal gaming compact which has revenue sharing. It's the whole reason an Indian tirbe does revenue sharing in the first place.

So, the compact under SB788 was pretty much dead in the water to begin with, and I'm pretty sure the legislators knew that. It's really no surprise that the tribe came out of the "negotiations" with a compact that didn't match SB788, and included the main points of exclusivity and gaming at all seven tribal casinos. But this gives the legislators - lead by Atwater, who is from Palm Beach County - what they really want, imo - a public excuse to expand Class III slots to pari-mutuels across the state and the Class III casino games to all the pari-mutuels in the three South Florida counties.

The tribe no doubt new this was on the horizon, and they would shortly be entitled to all the Class III gaming without any revenue-sharing. So there was really no reason for them to sign any compact that didn't give them true exclusivity.

Everything else is just public posturing. There will be no compact until the feds step in, and by then there will be Class III casino games in South Florida and therefore no requirement for revenue sharing by the tribe. In the meantime, the state will replace the lost revenue from the tribes by taxes on the expanded gaming at the pari-mutuels (and possibly Video Lottery Terminals).

QED

PX

 

[white_lytning]

The above was copied from another forum but its gives a much better summary than I could do.

It looks like the special session in October is not going to happen and it is going to delay these changes once again. The state negotiator has said publicly that he hopes to meet in November to discuss the bigger issue (gambling in Florida) and not just the Seminole deal. Now it looks like there is going to be reform of Florida gambling laws which should allow for higher stakes everywhere in the state. Although the time frame has been delayed it does look like its still going to happen. Most people are estimating july 09 due to legislator meetings and other time frames.

Just want to keep updating you every month or so till this happens. Keeping my finges crossed it sooner than later.

 

[Mortis]

I just want the wsop Circuit to come to Florida, lol. Hopefully in the future.

 

[luckforsome]

Im glad to hear this...Im Irish but heading to florida in november for 2 months...was so afraid that i couldnt get a prper game, now looking forward to it...thanks for the thread,very informative..